Eh, it'll pass, just like pokemon, shrek, and frozen did when they were everywhere. Though the make up one is kind of cool, marketing that says yes, girls do in fact enjoy star wars as well.

Anyway, great movie. Loved it so much. John Williams did a great job with the music once again, making it nostalgic-sounding but still original. New aliens and old faces as well. I'll probably have to watch it again to find out all my nitpicks but the only thing that comes to mind is the slightly slow start after the opening scene, though probably not any worse than a new hope. The only spoiler im gonna say is

It was good. Aleviated most of my reservations about a new trilogy. Although you can't help but feel in places it was trying to envoke and win fans based upon nostalgia rather than trying to do anything shockingly new or different. But I can see why, because when they did try something really different it went a bit awry (see: prequel triology).

I really liked Rey and BB-8. You could tell they were cautious with BB-8 to not create another unpopular unfunny sidekick, but it seems to have played out in their favour. There's obviously a lot out there regarding Rey's true identify and Rey's backstory, I hope the sequel goes down a surprising route rather than a familiar related to someone we already know and happens to have some connection to Luke/whoever. But I liked her as a character and the use of an unknown actress I think was really smart. She really carried her portions of the film well.

I felt like Finn could have been so much more. You know? Like he decided to be good and reject his Stormtrooper upbringing. Which is a great plot point. But there was no toying between what he was raised to do and what h wanted to do. No questioning his morality. He just decided he didn't want to do it any more within 20 minutes in the film. No real explanation why. They kind of can't realy expand on this in future anyway as throughout the film it kind of just moved on from it quickly.

I'm reserving my full judgement on Kylo Ren because we will obviously get so much more of his backstory with his descent into the dark side in the next film. Although the decision to have him square off with Han Solo was probably one of the much braver decisions the film made. Although I have seen that particular scene has a mixed reception. But to have this whole new triology and have all old favourites survive just to play to fan nostalgia would be ridiculous. So I'm pretty glad about that.

The scenery was very good, I loved the snowy forest fight scene in the third act. It looked fantastic. I thought Jakku could have been something other than dusty sand planet though. Re-treading Episode IV much?

I think my only real major gripe is probably that I personally could have done without the final scene. I think they probably could have left that moment for Episode VII to have even more impact.

It was good. Aleviated most of my reservations about a new trilogy. Although you can't help but feel in places it was trying to envoke and win fans based upon nostalgia rather than trying to do anything shockingly new or different. But I can see why, because when they did try something really different it went a bit awry (see: prequel triology).

I really liked Rey and BB-8. You could tell they were cautious with BB-8 to not create another unpopular unfunny sidekick, but it seems to have played out in their favour. There's obviously a lot out there regarding Rey's true identify and Rey's backstory, I hope the sequel goes down a surprising route rather than a familiar related to someone we already know and happens to have some connection to Luke/whoever. But I liked her as a character and the use of an unknown actress I think was really smart. She really carried her portions of the film well.

I felt like Finn could have been so much more. You know? Like he decided to be good and reject his Stormtrooper upbringing. Which is a great plot point. But there was no toying between what he was raised to do and what h wanted to do. No questioning his morality. He just decided he didn't want to do it any more within 20 minutes in the film. No real explanation why. They kind of can't realy expand on this in future anyway as throughout the film it kind of just moved on from it quickly.

I'm reserving my full judgement on Kylo Ren because we will obviously get so much more of his backstory with his descent into the dark side in the next film. Although the decision to have him square off with Han Solo was probably one of the much braver decisions the film made. Although I have seen that particular scene has a mixed reception. But to have this whole new triology and have all old favourites survive just to play to fan nostalgia would be ridiculous. So I'm pretty glad about that.

The scenery was very good, I loved the snowy forest fight scene in the third act. It looked fantastic. I thought Jakku could have been something other than dusty sand planet though. Re-treading Episode IV much?

I think my only real major gripe is probably that I personally could have done without the final scene. I think they probably could have left that moment for Episode VII to have even more impact.

I totally agree with your criticism of the final scene, and I agreed at first. But after thinking long and hard, as well as discussing with a friend of mine, I decided it was included ultimately for more of a practical reason than a story reason or impact reason.

Personally, I would have liked if R2 didn't have the rest of the map. Instead, they would have found most of the other pieces between episodes VII and VIII, and Episode VIII would have opened with a heist for the final piece.

I eventually came to the decision that they went the way they did because of the changing directors and writers. I think it was to give the new creative team more creative freedom. While there is obviously an overall plot established, there are more possibilities with where to go next by ending with that particular scene.

Force Awakens is pretty good. It definitely reignites the spark for Star Wars that the prequels destroyed. You can also feel JJ Abrams' style come through in the dialogue and the comedy. But it's not a perfect movie. There's a few details I didn't like near the middle and ending.

-Characters. Generally all of them were pretty good. I liked the Han/Leia relationship a lot.
-Action and Fun! No more boring senator meetings!
-Comedy! That scene Kylo Ren went apeshit on a wall and the Stormtroopers in the hallway just do a 180. I laughed so hard.
-Good use of Imagery. Lucas only knows two angles. Glad to see JJ didn't follow him. Showing the giant Emperor Snoke is probably the best example. It made him feel intimidating and powerful compared to his generals and Kylo Ren.
-Not really hiding Kylo Ren being Han and Leia's son. This was probably an obvious thing if you looked at any speculation, but it was nice that they didn't bother hiding it.
-Han and Kylo Ren scene was really good. I was actually a bit surprised, but it felt like the natural thing to do with the story.

-Another fucking Death Star?!?!! One trick pony that Empire is. And how did no one know about it beforehand? I mean, it's clearly obvious from space that it's a Death Star. It wasn't like it transformed from a normal planet into a giant space cannon. It was just a giant space cannon planet all the time.
-Captain Phasma was a meaningless character. Like she really couldn't get into a TIE Fighter and try to shoot down Poe in his trench run or something to mirror original SW or something? They could have shown her in the TIE with like dirty stains all over her shiny armor and say, "You Rebel Scum!" as she shoots at Poe's X-Wing. Instead, she did fuck nothing and they advertised her as some mega badass.

To clarify, these are plot holes I didn't like.
-Serious, Phasma again. Why did she bring down the shields? If she really was such a loyal First Order soldier, she should have been willing to die to keep the shield up. And no like, hitting the secret alarm button or anything either. Just do what the Wookie, the old man, and the idiot traitor says. She didn't even fight them. It woulda been cool if like she fought Han and Finn at first, then Chewey came in and punched her or something then gave up. Nope. Point a gun at her and it's done.
-Poe gets launched away from the TIE Fighter, but he was able to drop his jacket in front of the TIE before he gets thrown out? Did he take off his jacket before sitting in the pilot's seat or something?
-Poe also completely abandons BB-8. He's willing to risk his and Finn's life to try and get back to Jakku despite the heavy presence of the First Order. You get shot down and thrown out of the crashing TIE. And now you just go straight back to the Resistance base? You didn't bother with looking for BB-8, you just went home? WTF? What about the mission? What about your robot pet? What about his super important information? Nope. Just go home. This was forced upon Finn and Poe disappears for no reason.
-How did Rey beat Kylo Ren? Cause she knows she has the Force, she somehow gained magic powers to fight better? Okay. But Kylo Ren has been trained with these magic powers for years and he becomes her bitch? This felt so forced just simply to have Kylo Ren lose and become an actual Vader for the next movie.
-So what's the deal with the New Republic, the Resistance, and the First Order? Like, are the NR and the Resistance different organizations? Is the NR not at war with the First Order?
-Where did Rey learn to be a pilot? And an ace pilot at that it would seem. I can understand her knowing how to repair and dismantle stuff as a scavenger, but to fly around in those ships is a completely different thing. I GUESS THE FORCE DID IT!

Star Wars is often put on a pedestal but realistically Star Wars is just a good, fun space adventure film. Force Awakens goes back to those roots.

-How did Rey beat Kylo Ren? Cause she knows she has the Force, she somehow gained magic powers to fight better? Okay. But Kylo Ren has been trained with these magic powers for years and he becomes her bitch? This felt so forced just simply to have Kylo Ren lose and become an actual Vader for the next movie.

I really REALLY hope they expand on Phasma a bit LOT more in the upcoming films. Honestly, after all the hype surrounding her, that was just disappointing. Also, how long was Luke standing there? Ten years? An hour?

Force Awakens is pretty good. It definitely reignites the spark for Star Wars that the prequels destroyed. You can also feel JJ Abrams' style come through in the dialogue and the comedy. But it's not a perfect movie. There's a few details I didn't like near the middle and ending.

-Characters. Generally all of them were pretty good. I liked the Han/Leia relationship a lot.
-Action and Fun! No more boring senator meetings!
-Comedy! That scene Kylo Ren went apeshit on a wall and the Stormtroopers in the hallway just do a 180. I laughed so hard.
-Good use of Imagery. Lucas only knows two angles. Glad to see JJ didn't follow him. Showing the giant Emperor Snoke is probably the best example. It made him feel intimidating and powerful compared to his generals and Kylo Ren.
-Not really hiding Kylo Ren being Han and Leia's son. This was probably an obvious thing if you looked at any speculation, but it was nice that they didn't bother hiding it.
-Han and Kylo Ren scene was really good. I was actually a bit surprised, but it felt like the natural thing to do with the story.

-Another fucking Death Star?!?!! One trick pony that Empire is. And how did no one know about it beforehand? I mean, it's clearly obvious from space that it's a Death Star. It wasn't like it transformed from a normal planet into a giant space cannon. It was just a giant space cannon planet all the time.
-Captain Phasma was a meaningless character. Like she really couldn't get into a TIE Fighter and try to shoot down Poe in his trench run or something to mirror original SW or something? They could have shown her in the TIE with like dirty stains all over her shiny armor and say, "You Rebel Scum!" as she shoots at Poe's X-Wing. Instead, she did fuck nothing and they advertised her as some mega badass.

To clarify, these are plot holes I didn't like.
-Serious, Phasma again. Why did she bring down the shields? If she really was such a loyal First Order soldier, she should have been willing to die to keep the shield up. And no like, hitting the secret alarm button or anything either. Just do what the Wookie, the old man, and the idiot traitor says. She didn't even fight them. It woulda been cool if like she fought Han and Finn at first, then Chewey came in and punched her or something then gave up. Nope. Point a gun at her and it's done.
-Poe gets launched away from the TIE Fighter, but he was able to drop his jacket in front of the TIE before he gets thrown out? Did he take off his jacket before sitting in the pilot's seat or something?
-Poe also completely abandons BB-8. He's willing to risk his and Finn's life to try and get back to Jakku despite the heavy presence of the First Order. You get shot down and thrown out of the crashing TIE. And now you just go straight back to the Resistance base? You didn't bother with looking for BB-8, you just went home? WTF? What about the mission? What about your robot pet? What about his super important information? Nope. Just go home. This was forced upon Finn and Poe disappears for no reason.
-How did Rey beat Kylo Ren? Cause she knows she has the Force, she somehow gained magic powers to fight better? Okay. But Kylo Ren has been trained with these magic powers for years and he becomes her bitch? This felt so forced just simply to have Kylo Ren lose and become an actual Vader for the next movie.
-So what's the deal with the New Republic, the Resistance, and the First Order? Like, are the NR and the Resistance different organizations? Is the NR not at war with the First Order?
-Where did Rey learn to be a pilot? And an ace pilot at that it would seem. I can understand her knowing how to repair and dismantle stuff as a scavenger, but to fly around in those ships is a completely different thing. I GUESS THE FORCE DID IT!

Star Wars is often put on a pedestal but realistically Star Wars is just a good, fun space adventure film. Force Awakens goes back to those roots.

The state of the New Republic, Resistance, and First Order confused me at first as well. This is hinted at in the movie but never truly explained, and it was one of my major issues. But here's what my friends and I have arrived at:

The New Republic does not have total control of the galaxy. Neither does the First Order. It's probably half and half, or 60% NR / 40% FO or something like that. Point is, the First Order is more than just a terrorist organization. Basically, the New Republic can't get its systems to go to war with the First Order. They obviously don't know about the Starkiller Base and don't realize how much of a threat the First Order actually is. They just don't want to get dragged in, so the NR can't really do anything official. So instead, they secretly fund the Resistance to do the fighting for them.

Surprisingly (or not at all) the most popular "ship" is Poe (who is a total babe) and Finn. StormPilot is the ship name. The fanart is adorable.

Oscar Isaac also said in an interview that he felt that a subtle romance was there and he was playing romance. Some shots (namely the one at the Rebel base where tbe camera spins around them) seem focused on highlighting it as well. Idk I personally hope that they pursue PoexFinn.

My dad changed his mind; I saw the movie Monday by myself; I enjoyed it quite a bit, would give it an 8 out of 10; and have been wanting to write up a post for the past 72 hours but have been thwarted at every turn by work and Christmas obligations.

Have not read any of your guys' posts yet. Want to write up my own unbiased list of stuff first, much of which I am sure will echo many of your own sentiments. Will read and reply to all y'all later.

The one thing I want to go ahead and say now, though I am sure I will mention it again later, is that (not really a spoiler but meh, don't want to bias):

this movie really, really belongs with IV, V, and VI. It does not belong to just I, II, and III. Nor would I say that it only can be grouped with IV, V, and VI if we include the prequels as well. Naw. VII truly is "the lost 4th Star Wars film," even if it isn't perfect and even if Red Letter Media is going to be able to tear it ten new ones in ten years' time.

I love how instead of introducing a straight up powerful badass villain into the new film, they instead went the Joffrey Baratheon route, introducing a snotty kid who just wants to be as good as his predecessor. I like how he's shown to not be the complete package, and somebody who is growing into the monstrous villain we all want to see. I have a feeling the sequel will almost re-introduce Kylo Ren as a much more unstoppable force, whilst we see the evolution of both him and Rey as they train under both Snoke and Luke Skywalker respectively.

Various similarities to the original Star Wars films, whilst introducing new elements to the style and the cast, have made this a fantastic film. Its definitely the Star Wars film we've all been wanting for a long time.

I have no idea where you found the hype for Phasma, but she really wasn't that exciting. Perhaps you paid too much mind to the trailers?

For some of those other things, you have to remember that the prequels and sequels reflect the originals. Rey is a Force prodigy, just as Anakin and Luke were - out of the three Luke was unquestionably the weakest, but Rey is just different and I think they handled that pretty well. She never tried anything strange or unusual and just had a lot of faith that the Force would help her.

It's not a spoiler to say that Jar Jar wasn't in this one, we all knew he wouldn't be...but I was really, really hoping he would be. I want to see the prequels fixed - I really feel that the theory that Jar Jar is one of those "drunk monks" is what Lucas intended, and if the sequels can at least make that a reality...it might even make the prequels worth watching again, thinking of Jar Jar as the secret bad guy. It's such a shame we the audience despised him so much - if we had just kept our big mouths shut, we could have had badass Darth Darth Binks instead of ANNNIIIIIEEEEE

It sucked. There were some nice details, but for the most part it was a bad film.

And not very Star Wars-like, either. I agree with whoever said it was more similar to a Marvel film rather than an Abrams one. The 2009 Star Trek film was infinitely better. So much for Abrams boast of being a "SW" guy.

I also saw it a few days ago. It didn't "suck" but it also wasn't spectacular in any way. I give it a 6.5/10. I might actually like Revenge of the Sith better; although I only saw that once, and it's been a while since I watched it. I'd probably be more critical of it if I saw it again (FROM MY POINT OF VIEW THE JEDI ARE EVIL!)

I liked the opening scene with the stormtrooper landing. It was a brutal war scene that you don't really see in Star Wars, and it really set up the stormtroopers as a force to be feared, and not just a joke like they were in previous movies. Kylo Ren freezing the blaster bolt in mid air was also cool.

The scene where Rey touched the lightsaber for the first time was great. Very cool and creepy.

Like Torkoal Stu said, Finn's turn to good was poorly developed. This dude was brainwashed since he was a child to be a loyal stormtrooper, and then he just decided to defect, and showed ZERO signs of struggling with his indoctrination. It's almost like he filled out a job application to be a stormtrooper a week ago, then was sent to torch a village and was like, "Hey wait a minute, this job blows, I'm outta here." Was he never asked to execute people in all his years of being a stormtrooper? It's like the opposite of Anakin Skywalker, who went from being basically a good guy to murdering children in an instant.

Kylo Ren is a decent villain. I like how he's portrayed as powerful, but a bit of a fuck up, and has a lot of room for improvement. It would have been so easy to go the "unstoppable terminator" route, but instead he has a lot of flaws, prone to temper tantrums and mistakes. For example, he turned on his lightsaber when he tried giving it to Han Solo and accidentally killed his own father, very sad.

Like Loki said, Rey is too OP. Expert mechanic, expert pilot, expert Jedi knight despite being a newb. I know that you can always play the "It was the force" card, but beating Kylo Ren after handling a lightsaber for the first time was ridiculous. I'll excuse it due to his injury, and him not trying to kill her because he wanted her as an apprentice. I think Rey is going to end up being Luke's daughter; I don't think it's a coincidence that they got an actress who resembles Natalie Portman!

I want to know how the heck Finn and Poe survived the TIE fighter crash. They were hit by an ion missile and disabled, and therefore it was not possible to ease the vehicle into a soft landing, correct? Then how was it humanly possible to have survived that, lol. Sand isn't THAT soft, guys.

They were both ejected and had parachutes open up, no? There's no way they would have survived while in the Tie Fighter, and judging from the fact that both were quite far from the Fighter itself, I'd assume that both of their seats were ejected from the Tie Fighter (some safety mechanism or something) and therefore survived the crash.

Yeah, parachute/ejection seat is the only possible way they could have survived, but then I remember Finn looking for Poe in the TIE wreckage itself (which was swallowed up by the sand, which is why he thought he was dead), implying that they had no parachutes? And I don't recall seeing Finn wearing a deployed parachute, but I might be remembering wrong. The problem with a movie still being in theatres and not being able to just conveniently re-watch scenes ...

You must remember that Finn's job was sanitation, he had to be guided on what to shoot at for them to have any shot of escape-this, it's safe to say he had little knowledge of flight, and assumed Poe was still in the craft.

Anyway, I liked the film. It had much better writing quality than the prequels IMO, and had much better special effects than even the prequels did. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would watch it again.